Restoration Register

Heritage restoration contractors in Ontario

A general restoration contractor is who you hire when a project crosses trades and needs someone to hold the sequence, the permit and the specification together. On a designated property that is a materially different job from general contracting, and hiring a good renovator for it is the most common expensive mistake.

What to expect from a heritage general contractor: fluency with the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada, experience sequencing a job around a municipal heritage permit rather than after one, a willingness to argue for repair where replacement would be faster to price, and a named list of specialist subtrades rather than a promise that the in-house crew handles everything. Ontario coverage is concentrated. Twenty of these firms work in the GTA and York Region and eight in Waterloo and Wellington, which together hold two-thirds of the province's whole-building restoration capacity. Eastern, Central and Southwestern Ontario have three or four each, so booking further ahead is normal outside the two main clusters.

What to ask before you hire

  1. What proportion of your work is on designated or listed heritage property? Occasional heritage work inside a renovation business is a different capability from a restoration practice.
  2. Which trades will you self-perform, and which will you subcontract? Get the specialists named so you can check them independently.
  3. Have you worked under a heritage permit in this municipality? Conditions and staff expectations vary considerably across Ontario.
Grant funding

Whole-building restoration is the scope most municipal programs are designed for. Hamilton funds to $150,000, Ottawa to $35,000 on large projects, Brantford to $20,000, and Toronto has no cap on non-residential designated property. Nearly all require approval before work begins.

Across Ontario

Region pages

Related heritage trades

Get quotes for your project

Tell us about the job and we will pass it to up to three listed heritage trades who work in your area. It is free and there is no obligation.

All heritage service pages · Grants by municipality